


The Most Unlikely of Dreams

by Cookies_and_Chaos



Category: Girls of Paper and Fire Series - Natasha Ngan
Genre: Gen, Reference to animal death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-03-31
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:54:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 337
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23345749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cookies_and_Chaos/pseuds/Cookies_and_Chaos
Summary: There's many dreams, many nightmares that plague Lei at night and one in particular brings tears to her eyes.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Most Unlikely of Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Minor spoilers for events at the beginning of Girls of Paper and Fire.
> 
> CW: Reference to animal death.

Thoughts and dreams are perhaps the one thing that the Demon King cannot own, cannot take, no matter how much he might want to. His presence, his cruelty might bury itself deep in their minds and force unwanted appearances, but he can never truly take control entirely.

It's tempting to sleep just that little longer, just in case another dream is conjured by an exhausted mind. Just in case the nightmares are washed away by the warm glow of a different, more hopeful world. Sometimes Lei wishes that she could just stay asleep forever, in a world of her own conjuring where this nightmare isn't happening. In a world where her mother hadn't been taken, a world where Bao was still alive.

It was silly, at least that was what she told herself. It would be what the other Paper Girls said too, if any of them ever found out about it. Silly to have so many dreams about running in the streets of her village with Bao at her heels, or tidying in the shop with Bao bounding around her father's legs and barking with excitement. The loss of him is still too raw and even thinking of him when she's awake brings bitter and sharp tears to her eyes.

It's only a dog, that's what the other girls would say, they wouldn't ever understand that Bao was so much more than that. And now Bao only existed in her dreams too, because no matter how much she tried to re-write what had happened, logically she knew that he couldn't ever have survived what had happened to him. There was no miracle recovery after she was taken from the village, only a burial with two in attendance.

So she clung onto those dreams where the world hadn't been swept from beneath her feet and she could once more run through the fields with Bao bouncing along at her side. Those dreams would keep her going, and to keep going was exactly what she needed to do.


End file.
